Chapter 4 - THE CALL THAT CAME FROM INSIDE THE ESTATE
Victor arrived eighteen minutes later.
Too fast.
Damon knew because he checked.
Victor supposedly lived forty-five minutes away.
That meant he had already been nearby when he called.
Damon ordered Theo to copy the flash drive and lock the original inside the study safe.
Naomi took Zuri upstairs with a security officer Damon trusted personally.
Mrs. Whitfield remained.
Victor entered smiling.
“What’s all this drama?”
He wore no tie.
His shirt sleeves were rolled.
He looked relaxed.
Damon had spent half his life admiring Victor’s ability to appear calm under pressure.
Now he wondered how much that calm had hidden.
“Who told you about the ring?”
Victor glanced at Mrs. Whitfield.
“She did.”
“No,” Mrs. Whitfield said.
Victor’s smile barely moved.
“Margaret.”
“I did not call you.”
Victor sighed.
“Maybe you forgot.”
Mrs. Whitfield stiffened.
Damon stepped forward.
“My security system records outgoing calls from estate landlines.”
Victor looked at him.
“So?”
“There wasn’t one.”
A tiny silence.
Then Victor shrugged.
“Maybe she used a cell.”
Mrs. Whitfield placed her phone on the desk.
“I haven’t called you in six months.”
Victor’s eyes changed.
Only for a second.
But Damon saw it.
“What are you doing here?” Damon asked.
“You sounded upset.”
“You were already driving here.”
Victor smiled again.
“Coincidence.”
Damon had made billions by listening to people explain coincidences.
Coincidence was often the word people used when they hoped nobody would check timestamps.
Theo entered.
“Damon.”
He handed over a tablet.
“Security found something.”
Three years of archived gate records had been retained off-site.
The night Elena died, Victor’s car had entered through the service gate at 10:47 p.m.
Damon stared at the timestamp.
Elena collapsed at 11:32.
Victor had always told him he was in Boston that night.
Damon turned the tablet around.
Victor did not look shocked.
That scared Damon.
“You were here.”
“For twenty minutes.”
“You told me you were in Boston.”
“I flew out afterward.”
“Why were you here?”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“Elena called me.”
Damon stepped closer.
“Why?”
“She was emotional.”
“About what?”
“You.”
Damon almost hit him.
He did not.
“What about me?”
“She thought you cared more about Ashford Holdings than your marriage.”
Mrs. Whitfield suddenly spoke.
“That is not why she called you.”
Victor turned slowly.
Margaret Whitfield had worked for the Ashford family longer than almost anyone.
She had never raised her voice.
Now it shook.
“Elena came to me that afternoon.”
Damon looked at her.
“What did she say?”
Mrs. Whitfield began crying.
“She asked whether the cameras in the west hall could be disabled from the security room.”
Victor’s face hardened.
Damon saw it.
“Why would she ask that?”
“Because someone had been entering the upstairs medicine cabinet while she slept.”
Silence.
Then Theo’s tablet chimed.
One recovered camera file had survived.
The footage was damaged.
Only twelve seconds remained.
Elena entered the west hallway.
Twenty seconds later, another figure followed her.
Theo enlarged the frame.
The image sharpened.
May you like
It was Victor.
And he was carrying Elena’s prescription bag.
